Sekarajasekaran's public sector career began in 1951 with the Public Works Department. His commitment to public health improvements through water supply and sanitary engineering projects saw him being entrusted with the responsibility of heading the then newly-formed public health engineering division within the Ministry of Health in 1965. He was directly responsible for establishing and implementing various environmental health and environmental engineering programs, including the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Program and the National Drinking Water Quality Surveillance Program.

He was appointed as Secretary of the Committee responsible for drafting the Environmental Quality Act (1974), the Drainage and Sanitary Plumbing By-laws (1978), the Palm Oil Effluent Regulations (1977), the Amendment to the Waters Enactment (1964) and the Sewerage Services Act (1994). He prepared the National Paper on the status of Environment in Malaysia for the UN conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, June 1972, helped formulate the National Environmental Policy in Malaysia, prepared the Cabinet paper to establish the Division of Environment (later upgraded to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment), and served on the National Environmental Quality Council.

He directed the planning and implementation of Hospital Engineering Services and the Radiation Protection Services, the latter encompassing licensing and monitoring of radiation protection programs in Government and Private Hospitals and Medical Clinics in Malaysia, and was a contributor to the Amendment to the Radioactive Substances Act (1968) and Regulations for the Licensing Monitoring and Implementation of Radiation Protection Service.

After his retirement in 1983, he established an environmental engineering consultancy specializing in water supply, wastewater and drainage engineering and in the conduct of environmental assessment and environmental resource management and served as Consultant to the World Health Organization, Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and the Republic of China.

Past Recipients

2007 -- Daniel J. Gunaratnam
2006 -- James L. Barnard
2005 -- Xie Qingtao
2004 -- Bindu Nath Lohani
2003 -- Earnest F. Gloyna
2002 -- Vincent Bath
2001 -- Norihito Tambo
2000 -- Klaus R. Imhoff
1999 -- Harvey F. Ludwig
1994 -- Donald J. O'Connor
1991 -- Arthur C. Stern
1988 -- Daniel A. Okun
1983 -- Abel Wolman
1982 -- Stanley E. Kappe


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